Tag: working mom

Get Control Of Meal Preparation By Prepping Ahead

Facing the task of preparing a meal after a long day of work can be overwhelming.  Preparing a meal in a slow cooker or relying on frozen meals from the grocery store are commonly used alternatives.  Another way to reduce the overwhelm is to break the meal preparation into steps and prep-ahead all or parts of the meal.

Review the meal and identify what you can prep the night before.  Are there vegetables that need chopping?  Is there meat that can be prepared the night before and just reheated the next day?  Or maybe there’s a sauce you can prepare the night before.

Chicken Breasts:

For salads or pasta, bake and cut up chicken breasts the night before and place in refrigerator or prepare several and place in the freezer for future meals.  Pull them out of the freezer the night before to thaw.

You can do the same for quesadillas, chimichangas or chicken salad sandwiches, just season and shred the chicken.

Ground Beef:

Make home made meatballs and freeze them.

Meat sauce is also easy to make the night before or in bulk and freeze.  Imagine how much quicker it is to make a lasagna, spaghetti dish, or Italian sloppy joes with the sauce made ahead of time.

You can have nachos or tacos quick and easy by cooking up the meat the night before and placing in the refrigerator.  And this is great made ahead of time and frozen in the freezer as well.

Soups:

Prepping your vegetables the night before makes it quick and easy to serve a soup with dinner.  See our blog post on prepping your vegetables and freezing them to prepare soup later.  This is a great way to use left over vegetables or vegetables that are about to go bad.

Lasagnas and Casseroles:

Consider making a double batch of your favorite lasagna and casserole recipes.  You can place the additional batch in the freezer for a future meal.

These are just a few ideas of how you can prep-ahead some of your meal and reduce the stress at meal time.  Share with us some of your prep-ahead tips.

Other posts you may like:

Spicy Tomato and Cilantro Soup

Make Ahead Salad Recipe

Spinach and Avocado Salad

Bodywork Alternatives Onsite Massage, LLC provides on-site chair massage services for corporate and personal events such as employee corporate wellness health fairs, employee appreciation, customer appreciation, bridal parties, birthday parties, and more.  Call us for your next event!

Chair Massage Austin,  Chair Massage Boston, Chair Massage Charlotte, Chair Massage Chicago, Chair Massage Columbus, Chair Massage Dallas, Chair Massage Denver, Chair Massage Detroit,  Chair Massage Houston,  Chair Massage Indianapolis, Chair Massage Jacksonville, Chair Massage Memphis, Chair Massage New York City, Chair Massage Philadelphia, Chair Massage Phoenix, Chair Massage San Antonio, Chair Massage Seattle, Chair Massage DenverClick here for all chair massage service areas

My Second Week Giving Up Sugar

sugar-free-diet-getting-started-weight-loss-bodywork-alternatives

After two weeks of drastically reducing my sugar intake – I feel awesome!  I didn’t lose as much weight this week, but I’ve lost 2 inches around my waist!  My clothes feel better, I don’t feel swollen, my energy feels even and I feel free.   I wasn’t exercising the last two weeks as I wanted to just focus on what I was eating.  However, I decided to start adding exercise back in as I’m starting my third week.

It was very freeing when I started my workout today.  Usually, I begin my workout thinking I need to exercise as much as 90 minutes so I can burn off the junk I ate that day.  But today, I was able to get onto the treadmill and set a goal of rotating walking and running every five minutes for thirty-five minutes and feel a huge accomplishment.

I was aware there are sugars hiding in nearly everything I eat, but had focused my first two weeks on avoiding pop, juices, and sugary treats.  I’ve decided to start tracking all sugar I’m eating this third week.  I researched the amount of sugar grams I should consume per day.  I have found the American Heart Association has 25-30 grams as the maximum recommended sugar intake.  I’ve decided to stay below this daily amount.  I’ve also set a daily amount of calories I am allowed to eat.  I believe between this plan and exercising five times per week, I will see an average of a 2 lb. weight loss.  I will use MyFitnessPal to track my calories and sugar.  It is a free app.  I especially like clicking on complete entry and seeing my expected weight after five weeks of eating similar to that day.

Are you reducing your sugar in your diet?  Share your story with us.

chair massage-detroit-atlanta-indianapolis-columbus-philadelphia-boston-chicago-new-york-corporate-tradeshows-events

Meal Organizing: Prepping Soups

Who is craving warm bowls of soup, but find the time it takes to make not ideal for an evening after work?  Not only that, but who else buys the vegetables for soup but finds them rotting in the refrigerator by time you get around to making it? Well, our soup prepping tips may save you time and veggies.  The next time you go shopping, plan a little time later that day or one of the next evenings to chop and prep soup.  In this post, we share prepping for two soups Red Pepper Soup and Chicken Noodle Soup.

Red Pepper Soup

One of our favorite soups is the Red Pepper Soup.  To make it easier to whip up this soup, we chop and freeze the vegetables ahead of time.  For this soup, we need red peppers, a yellow pepper, celery and onion. Meal_Planning_Meal_preparation_red_pepper_soup_recipe We’ve chopped the first batch of vegetables and are ready to bag.  It does take some time to chop up the vegetables, I chose to sit at the kitchen table with a large bowl next to me to capture all the stems, seeds, etc. to throw away after. Meal-planning-tips-meal-organization-red-pepper-soup-recipe-chopped   By chopping these vegetables ahead of time, we are able to pull the bags out of the freezer and place into the refrigerator the day before we make the soup.  There are two batches of soup below.  We plan on making both in one large batch of soup.

meal-planning-meal-preparation-red-pepper-soup-recipe-bagged

 

chair massage-detroit-atlanta-indianapolis-columbus-philadelphia-boston-chicago-new-york-corporate-tradeshows-events

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is a must to have on hand whether it’s for a cold day or someone’s sick – you never know when you will need to whip up a batch!  Chopping and freezing the vegetables ahead of time, makes whipping up a batch of soup a breeze! We chopped up carrots, celery and onions ahead of time. meal-preparation-meal-planning-tips-chicken-noodle-soup-recipe   Just add chicken, broth and seasonings for a quick homemade batch of chicken noodle soup.

 

Other posts you may like:

Get Control Of Meal Planning By Prepping Ahead

Spicy Tomato and Cilantro Soup

Make Ahead Salad Recipe

Spinach and Avocado Salad

Organize Your Finances In Three Steps

Reduce the stress of managing your finances in three easy steps:

 

Step 1:  Use Your Online Bill Pay Function With Your Bank

Household Finance Organization
Household Finance Organization

Online bill pay is a great tool for your fixed monthly expenses.  Set-up an automatic payment from your account weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc. to ensure your bills are always paid on-time.  This option allows better control of your account than allowing the funds withdrawn directly from your account.

 

Step 2:  Set-up A Monthly Budget

Document all of your income and expenses into a spreadsheet.  Determine how much money you want to spend every month for your car, insurance, utilities, gas, groceries, household items, meals and entertainment, home improvement, clothing, vacation and gifts.  Next, set aside a monthly amount for emergency savings, short-term savings, and retirement savings.

Develop A Monthly Budget
Develop A Monthly Budget

Step 3:  Design Systems to Maintain Your Budget

There are a few different ways to set-up systems to maintain your budget.  You can designate envelopes for each category and divvy money into each envelope.  You can also set-up an automatic transfer to other accounts set-up for each category.  A combination of both probably works very well.  Set-up a system that works best for you and your family.

Most importantly, give yourself some flexibility to modify these steps until you find a system that works for you.

 

hair massage detroit chicago corporate wellness denver austin houston tucson washington dc indianapolis cleveland columbus

Quiche Breakfast Cupcakes

Make Ahead Breakfast Quiche
Make Ahead Breakfast Quiche

Eating protein at breakfast helps you to feel satisfied longer and keep your blood sugars balanced.  This recipe is easy to make ahead for a quick and easy breakfast.  Make a batch of these quiches and freeze.  In the morning, microwave for about one minute.

Eat these along with a cup of coffee, some fruit, and a slice of toast for a great breakfast.

 

Make Ahead Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 Tube Hot Ground Sausage
  • 9 Eggs
  • 1/4 cup Milk
  • Minced Onion
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • 1/8 Cup Ranch
  • 2 Tsp. Hot Sauce
  • 4 oz. cheddar cheese
  • Pie Crust

 

Make Ahead Step 1:

A day or two before making the quiche, brown up the sausage and place in a container in the refrigerator.  This makes it even easier to make these.  Make the entire tube and freeze in two separate containers for future quiche or double the batch.

 

Brown Sausage For Breakfast Quiche
Brown Sausage For Breakfast Quiche

Make Ahead Step 2:

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Microwave roll of pie crust for about 30 seconds to soften.  Pinch off a piece of pie crust and press into the bottoms of a cup cake pan.
  • Evenly distribute the sausage on top of each pie crust.
  • Sprinkle each with minced onion.
  • In a bowl, mix together the eggs and milk.  Then add hot sauce, ranch and cheese.  Evenly distribute into each cup cake mold.
  • Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the quiche is firm.
  • Place into ziploc bags and freeze.
Make Ahead Breakfast Quiche
Make Ahead Breakfast Quiche

 

hair massage detroit chicago corporate wellness denver austin houston tucson washington dc indianapolis cleveland columbus

Other posts you may like:

Get Control Of Meal Planning By Prepping Ahead

Spicy Tomato and Cilantro Soup

Make Ahead Salad Recipe

Spinach and Avocado Salad